Giants-Dodgers rivalry gets in-depth look from Marin author

Joe Konte, toward the end of a long conversation about his new book, has a surprise to share. The Mill Valley resident lifts his computer case onto the table, unzips it and gently removes a red-colored program.

Konte sets the thin paper object onto the table for closer inspection. It's an official San Francisco Giants scorecard. The date on the well-preserved document is Sept. 1, 1958. The price stamped on the cover is 20 cents.

Inside that one little piece of history are Konte's roots for one of his life's greatest passions — the San Francisco Giants versus Los Angeles Dodgers baseball rivalry.

Fifty-five years ago to the day, Konte attended his first San Francisco Giants game with his father, Joe, a native of San Francisco. Of course, there was no spanking new AT&T Park. In fact, Candlestick had not even been built yet.

The first Major League Baseball game Konte and his father attended was played at Seals Stadium. And, as fate would have it, the Giants were hosting the Dodgers.

Copy desk chief at the Marin Independent Journal and a 33-year veteran of the newspaper's staff, Konte's fascination with one of baseball's most storied rivalries never waned since that late summer day from his childhood.

Konte, who says he has rarely missed a Giants-Dodgers game in a span covering more than half a century, started extensive work on a book about the rivalry some six years ago.

The finished product is a 352-page detailed account of the two teams' baseball wars and is titled, "The Rivalry Heard 'Round the World," and subtitled, "The Giants-Dodgers Feud from Coast to Coast."

The book begins with dual forewords, one written by Bruce Jenkins, longtime Giants beat writer and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, and the other penned by Steve Dilbeck, a Southern California sports writer for more than 25 years including seven as a Dodgers beat writer.

Dilbeck's second paragraph of his short piece is especially amusing. It simply reads, "I hate the San Francisco Giants."

From cover to cover, Konte's book is all about his love of the hate between the Giants and Dodgers.

The cover of Konte's book perfectly captures the love-to-hate relationship between the two teams and their fans. The photo atop the cover shows a friendly, posed picture from 1954 taken at New York's Polo Grounds of Snider and Mays. Just below the title, however, also on the cover, is a photo from 2004 of a bench-clearing brawl sparked by the Giants' Michael Tucker charging the mound after Dodgers relief pitcher Eric Gagne knocked him down with a pitch.

Konte painstakingly researched the subject — he meticulously scrolled through a mile of microfiche at the library — covering more than 900 Giants-Dodgers games since the inception of the rivalry in 1889 when the Brooklyn Dodgers faced the New York Giants for the first time in a best-of-11 series for the baseball championship.

"One of the real joys of researching the book was to go back and read accounts of the games from some of the great sports writers of each era," said Konte, who served as the Marin IJ's sports editor from 1984 to '88.

Even though Konte is a diehard Giants fan, he says he was careful to write the book without bias.

"This is an important point," Konte says. "I have been a Giants fan since 1958 when I was 7 years old. But I approached and wrote the book not as a fan of either team, but as someone who has the responsibility of recounting the rivalry and its place in baseball history. My goal was to tell the story straight down the middle."

Konte cleverly organized the book decade by decade and a quick glance at the table of contents can send a reader on a self-selected stroll through time in regard to the rivalry. One of the highlights of the book is the 1960-69 section — specifically 1965 — fittingly and simply titled, "Boiling Point," which of course is highlighted by the famous John Roseboro-Juan Marichal incident.

The lead-in to the section reads, "In 1965, the Giants and Dodgers would engage in a blistering pennant chase."

Konte goes on to describe the Aug. 22, 1965, incident at Candlestick Park when Giants pitching legend Marichal took exception to Dodger catcher Roseboro zinging a throw back to pitcher Sandy Koufax too close to Marichal's ear. Emotions escalated and tempers flared quickly, resulting in Marichal's bat connecting for a 2-inch gash on Roseboro's head. The book captures in detail one of baseball's most legendary bench-clearing brawls, including quotes from both players after the game in regard to the 14-minute skirmish.

Konte remembers attending many games in the middle of the pennant race that season and recalls, "At Candlestick the crowd was always loud, unruly and rude to the Dodgers."

During this era of the rivalry, Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale was a central figure in the ill will between the two teams. In fact he was so much so, Konte says he felt quite melancholy when Drysdale died in 1993.

"Drysdale was enemy No. 1 for the Giants," Konte said. "His most intimidating pitch was keeping you off the plate. It was old-school baseball. When he passed away, I remember stopping and thinking about all he brought to that rivalry — maybe the heyday of the rivalry. It was the end of an era."

Konte devotes plenty of space to discussing some of the most prominent names associated with the rivalry. In fact, near the end of the book, Konte picks his all-rivalry "Dream Teams." Some of the names on the list will surprise you.

The book is deep and rich in the history of the Giants versus Dodgers rivalry. Jenkins sums it up succinctly at the end of his foreword: "I'd try to recall all the great moments, but why bother? That's the beauty of this book. In meticulous fashion "... Joe Konte brings them all home."